Reading my old college papers about high school

I started getting seriously teased in the 7th grade. It still hurts my heart to this day. I felt better when I'm in college but now I feel like my past was just yesterday. I made a thread about my high school days that can be found here: http://suicideforum.com/showthread.php?p=170470#post170470.

It's kinda long so I'll post the last two paragraphs and I hope it can help some people:

"After I sobered up, my family and my Uncle’s family decided to have an intervention and to see how I felt about all of this. This was where I finally was able to see the reasons behind my ways. I realized how foolish it was to try and fit in with a group of people by doing drugs, drinking, etc. in order to get their respect. Sooner or later they’ll know you’re just trying to put on an act and that would be how you would feel alienated. Even if you did earn the respect of your peers, that doesn’t mean you got the respect of everybody. Some people would think I was foolish to do these harmful things just to feel accepted. The fact is if you hang out with people who do drugs, the relationship is not based on friendship; it’s based on the drugs themselves. If you aren’t able to be friends while you’re in your true state of mind, they should never be your friends to begin with. You have to realize that everybody is not going to like you no matter what you do. By living through your own heart, you soon get a sense of pride and dignity in yourself for what you’ve been through. In trying to get respect from other people, first learn to respect yourself.

There is life after high school. There comes a time when you realize how pointless and damaging it could be, to engulf yourself in the thoughts of how other people perceive you. You realize that everybody has his/her own problems, and the world doesn’t revolve around you. It baffles me how common this personal epidemic is with high school kids. Hopefully anyone who has gone through or is going through this very problem right now; just believe in yourself and try to take this quote to heart,

“Be who you are and say what you want, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
-Dr. Seuss"